What's with all these new shiney boxes in our data centres ? Trendy coloured appliances big and small... Look you can even have different coloured doors ! Well, it never hurt to have pretty flashing lights. I remember someone telling me a story of people getting a tour of a datacentre and wanting to see the purchase of …
How to migrate your endpoints to a new Systems Director 6.3 server
If you're currently running Systems Director 6.2.x in your environment, you can perform an in-place upgrade to 6.3 as outlined here. However, there are many customers who might also like to install some new hardware or even virtualise their existing Director server at the same time. The following steps outline the process to migrate your …
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Upgrading to IBM’s customized ESXi 5.0 with VMware Update Manager
IBM has released it's customised ESXi 5.0 available here (customized if US spelling!). IBM's customised ESXi 5.0 includes a number of additional management components (for Systems Director and IBM's Upward Integration Module plugin for vCenter) and preloaded drivers for Emulex, Qlogic and LSI. This packaged ESXi has been fully tested by VMware and by IBM on a …
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IBM Plug-ins for VMware vCenter
One of the key benefits of VMware vSphere is of course vCenter Server, which allows the management of small to enterprise virtualised environments from a single console. I find that if a product can be used without immediately refering to the manual, it's passed the 'Apple' test and vCenter passes that test. vCenter of course allows a range of VMware and 3rd plug-ins …
Apple Wi-Fi Sync (iOS5) at home with VMware vSphere 5.0 (ESXi)
There's a bunch of features I've really liked in iOS5, particuarly Wi-Fi Sync. Since I wanted to centralise my music to my home server running VMware vSphere 5 (and a bunch of VMs), I thought I'd also run iTunes inside my File Server VM (running Win2K8 R2). My File Server VM could then tick away with iTunes …
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IBM Hardware Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM 2007
In July 2011, IBM released Version 3.0 of it's IBM Hardware Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 - IBM BladeCenter and System x (Otherwise known as IBM HWMP 3.0 for short!). The HWMP allows your SCOM team to have visability to your IBM System x servers and BladeCenter's, which is fantasic, as it …
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IBM BladeCenter AMM settings for IBM Systems Director
The following are a number of recommended IBM BladeCenter Advanced Management Module (AMM) settings for both discovery/updates using IBM Systems Director. TCP Command Mode Protocol Set this value to at least 10 (my screen capture shows 20) before discovering your BladeCenter's AMM with Director. If you use an SSL certificate, also set the Secure command …
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Some additional tips n’ tricks if using SQL Server 2005 Express with IBM Systems Director
I had a client who wished to use SQL Express 2005 for it's Director database. SQL Express (with SP3) is downloadable from here and you'll want to also get the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express (SSMSE). Once it's installed you can create your SQL database for IBM Systems Director as I've blogged previously. However, …
Migrating Systems Director Database from Apache Derby to SQL 2005 (Remote)
I've previously detailed the steps to migrate Systems Director's default Apache database to a local instance of SQL Server 2005. I've also tested the steps to migrate Apache to a remote SQL Server 2005 instance below. My Systems Director Server is running on Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit). If you login to your Director …
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IBM Upward Integration for VMware vSphere
IBM recently announced the IBM Upward Integration for VMware vSphere, v1.0 which provides a number of exciting new platform management features for VMware vSphere customers running IBM System x servers. I was able to get access to the software in IBM and give it a go with our vSphere lab in Melbourne running on XIV storage. …
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